The Digital Divide Goes Transatlantic

A European study finds evidence of a US-style "digital divide." But the definition changes slightly in translation.

A new survey conducted by Eurostat for the European Union, which gathered information from 25 nations across the continent, found that Europe, too, has a digital divide — by age and education.

"A gap remains between users and nonusers or between 'haves' and 'have-nots,' " the report stated.

Among 16-to-24 year olds, the survey found the proportion of Internet users to be three times higher than among the 55-to-64 year old population.

A similar degree of inequality — and a similar slope — is seen when comparing by level of education.

The gap is most apparent when combining age and education. Some 85% of students aged 16 to 24 are using the Internet, compared to 13% of people aged between 55 and 74.

Although more older users are going online, the gap between old and young has actually widened since 2002.

The same pattern is apparent when comparing education levels. The percentage of "lower education" people online rose to 25% in 2004 from 20% in 2002, but that uptake hasn't been enough to narrow the gap, as "higher education" usage rose from 67% to 79% over the same period.

In total, average Internet use across the EU stood at 47%. By comparison, eMarketer estimates that nearly 62% of the US population is online.

As to European regional differences, the survey found that Internet use was highest in the Nordic countries of Denmark (76%), Finland (70%) and Sweden (82%). The lowest rate was in Greece, at only 20%. EU candidate countries had usage rates of only 16% in Bulgaria, 13% in Romania and 12% in Turkey.

Article from www.eMarketer.com, 14 November 2005.